A crowning feature: the Centennial Exhibition and Philadelphia's Horticultural Hall

Abstract

The first public conservatory in the United States was built as part of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, one of 249 structures erected in the city's Fairmount Park to house what many considered the first true world's fair held in North America (figure 1).1 A total of 36 foreign countries, as well as colonies of the British Empire, participated; 15 erected their own pavilions, as did 24 American states and territories, several manufacturers and various concessionaires. By the time the exhibition closed, more than ten million visitors had explored displays ‘of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine’, ranging from sewing machines to Japanese porcelain, from Alexander Graham Bell's new telephone apparatus to George Washington's uniform.2